Eight years after Katrina, nearly 100,000 people never got back to New Orleans. The city remains incredibly poor. Jobs and income vary dramatically by race. Rents are up; public transportation is down. Traditional public housing is gone. Life expectancy differs dramatically by race and place, and most public education has been converted into charter schools.

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. The storm and the impact of the government responses are etched across New Orleans. A million people were displaced. More than 1,000 died. Now, thanks to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) and others, it is possible to illustrate the current situation in New Orleans. While some elected officials and chambers of commerce tout the positive aspects of the city post-Katrina, widespread pain and injustice remain.

New Orleans is still about 86,000 people smaller since Katrina according to the Census. Official population now is 369,250 residents. When Katrina hit, it was 455,000.

Life expectancy varies as much as 25 years inside of New Orleans, according to analysis by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. From a high of 80 years of life expectancy in ZIP code 70124 (Lakeview and Lakeshore, which is 93 percent white) to a low of 54.5 in 70112 (Tulane, Gravier, Iberville, Treme, which is 87 percent black and has six times the poverty of 70124), more than three years after the hurricane landed. Overall, life expectancy in New Orleans-area parishes is one to six years lower than the rest of the United States.

In a bewildering development, a recent poll of Republicans in Louisiana revealed that 28 percent thought George W. Bush was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina and 29 percent thought Barack Obama was more responsible, even though he did not take office until more than three years after the hurricane landed!

Bill Quigley is legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached at[email protected]

Eight years after Katrina, nearly 100,000 people never got back to New Orleans. The city remains incredibly poor. Jobs and income vary dramatically by race. Rents are up; public transportation is down. Traditional public housing is gone. Life expectancy differs dramatically by race and place, and most public education has been converted into charter schools.

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. The storm and the impact of the government responses are etched across New Orleans. A million people were displaced. More than 1,000 died. Now, thanks to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) and others, it is possible to illustrate the current situation in New Orleans. While some elected officials and chambers of commerce tout the positive aspects of the city post-Katrina, widespread pain and injustice remain.

New Orleans is still about 86,000 people smaller since Katrina according to the Census. Official population now is 369,250 residents. When Katrina hit, it was 455,000.

Life expectancy varies as much as 25 years inside of New Orleans, according to analysis by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. From a high of 80 years of life expectancy in ZIP code 70124 (Lakeview and Lakeshore, which is 93 percent white) to a low of 54.5 in 70112 (Tulane, Gravier, Iberville, Treme, which is 87 percent black and has six times the poverty of 70124), more than three years after the hurricane landed. Overall, life expectancy in New Orleans-area parishes is one to six years lower than the rest of the United States.

In a bewildering development, a recent poll of Republicans in Louisiana revealed that 28 percent thought George W. Bush was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina and 29 percent thought Barack Obama was more responsible, even though he did not take office until more than three years after the hurricane landed!

Bill Quigley is legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. He can be reached at[email protected]